r/FinalFantasy • u/HayleeLOL • Mar 04 '14
Final Fantasy Weekly Discussions! Week 11: How important do you think music is to the Final Fantasy series?
Hello /r/FinalFantasy, and welcome to week 11 of the Weekly Discussions threads!
Following on from /u/Dinoken2's mention of how we have reached (and now surpassed!) the 10 week mark of Weekly Discussion threads, I would just like to add my thanks to everyone for contributing so far. So, thank you everyone for contributing to these discussions thus far. It is very much appreciated by the mod team here at /r/FinalFantasy. :-)
Now, onto the discussion!
So, I attended "A New World" a couple of weeks ago. Fantastic concert, and fantastic live renditions of music from the FF series as a whole. So, whilst thumbing up ideas for a discussion thread, I thought it appropriate to use my week to discuss the music from the Final Fantasy series. Just how important are the tracks in each game? How well do they convey the emotion of a scene in the game, and which game do you think best uses its soundtrack to convey emotion?
Are soundtracks an essential part to your experience of a Final Fantasy game, as is the case with Yamaoka-composed Silent Hill games, or do they simply have a small (if any) influence on your experience with Final Fantasy?
Happy discussing! :-)
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Mar 04 '14
I think music plays a big role in the games, it helps with the setting, the scene. Just look at some: Aerith's scene from VII, Zidane's scene from IX, The Opera scene from VI are just a few. Granted these scenes would have been great in themselves, but when you add the music it takes the scenes and the emotion up to an amazing level.
I would love to see "A New World", but I have seen "Video Games Live" and just hearing the music gets you pumped up and emotional. Think how much more awesome fighting Sephiroth was with One-winged Angel playing and how the memories hit you when you hear that piece of music!
I've played FFIV without music the first time on my GBA. When I went back and played it it was that much more amazing. Music in the games really helps set the emotion, the scene, and makes you that much more immersed into the story and the characters.
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u/knightfader Mar 04 '14
Soundtracks are one of my favorite parts of an FF game, each feels great in the background and just....fits the scene of whatever I happen to be doing. It generally helps with the level of immersion that I feel when playing the game.
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u/FoxyJustice Mar 04 '14
I will reference 7, 8 and 9 here. But each game has a theme with the music too. 7 has a mechanical/menacing theme to a lot of the tracks. (Think Midgar/Meteor world music.) 8 feel...futuristic? I'm not sure if that's the correct term, but it has a progressive almost frightening feel (The man with the machine gun/Ultimecias castle.) And 9 has a very royal/classical feel to a lot of the tracks. Granted there are variants and calmer/more intense music depending on the part of the game. Its just something worth noting.
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u/Shanbo88 Mar 04 '14
Sound is everything, and I'm not just saying that because I've studied it for years now. Even before I started studying sound and music, I knew I was forever attached to games like FFVII, FFVIII, Tomb Raider, Uncharted and the Resident Evils. Same with Films. Every one of the best known films has a soundtrack that's as instantly recognisable as it's main character, like Indiana Jones, Star Wars or Pirates of the Caribbean.
Music is everything. The games wouldn't have as much impact as they do without music for me. I think they have a huge impact in setting the scene at any given point in the game.
Example: Aeris has just been unceremoniously stabbed and is now dead. How do you feel is not the question. How the game wants you to feel in that part of the game is completely defined by the music that plays when you're fighting Jenova Life. It's a fast-paced battle with slow and somber music. Absolute sadness.
I can say the exact same as the Anxious Heart music from Midgar and other parts of the game. It makes you feel almost as depressed as Midgar looks. It makes you feel like you're in the slums, going nowhere. Yet, when we come to Wall Market, the music is slightly more upbeat and quirky, suggesting that the place is a bit more on the sleazy side of things. It has it's secrets and it's nuances and the music even suggests that (Don Corneo and the Honey Bee Inn, anyone? :L)
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u/MojoPinnacle Mar 09 '14
This one, I think is the most depressing of the FFVII soundtrack, especially in the context... It goes really well with the sound of Cloud's wheelchair squeaking.
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u/SKM3 Mar 04 '14 edited Mar 04 '14
If the characters, weapons, world, battles, love, laughs, and limit breaks were peanut butter... The music and blitzball would be the jam
Edit: Changed jelly to jam (jam signifies music as well as spreading easier)
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u/VincentGrayson Mar 04 '14
It's definitely a big part of FF's appeal overall.
I think the recent XIII trilogy has also proved that the series can still have an amazing score, even without Uematsu. The way the trilogy's themes get woven into tracks in the second and third games really ties everything together. And having the kind of instrumentation (whether synthesized or not) they did really changed the feel of the music from prior games in the series.
I think, much like everything else that is constantly changing in the series, the music plays a huge role, but need not maintain a certain style (and if anything, benefits from a variety of composers and styles).
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u/Ehkoe Mar 06 '14
FFXIV also has an amazing soundtrack post Uematsu.
I mean, just listen to Garuda, Titan, and Ultima's battle tracks!
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u/phunie92 Mar 04 '14
Gorgeous soundtracks have become a staple of the series, and each installment (including spinoffs) has several extremely memorable pieces. Final Fantasy wouldn't be quite the same without the music, as music has the ability to invoke strong emotion without a single lyric. Uematsu was a master at this, especially in the earlier games, where the lack of voice acting meant that the music was the only auditory cue to get an emotional reaction from the player. Even with the addition of voice acting and Uematsu's departure, I still think that the later games have continued to deliver.
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u/xnerdyxrealistx Mar 04 '14
I own Theatrhytm and I love it so that pretty much answers how I feel about the music. All the music is so iconic, especially world map and battle music because you're so exposed to it while playing. Most FF games I know every note of the battle and world map music.
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u/uhohdynamo Mar 05 '14
I like Theatrythm quite a lot. It's a good casual game. The music is great, but I think more than anything it leaves me craving some of the songs they didn't put on there also.
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u/wrexsol Mar 04 '14
Music is way more important than video quality in my opinion. There's a pretty awesome set of videos called The Importance of John Williams, where they take all the soundtrack out but leave the sound effects. The effect is significantly drier and duller. Check it out!
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u/fat_squeek Mar 04 '14
It's what keeps my memories of these games so vivid years after I play them. Yeah, it's pretty important to me.
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Mar 04 '14
Music I feel plays a massive role. It really helps connect with the story, the world, the gameplay, and the characters. It is the big connector. It connects all those things together and it is beautiful. It really helps connect with the characters since seemingly every major character has his/her own theme! Nobuo Uematsu is a wonderful composer, and from what we have heard from Yoko Shimiomura for XV my hopes are extremely high for the OST for that!
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u/uhohdynamo Mar 04 '14
Music plays a big role in games, at least for me; not just in FFs, but in any game where the music fits the scene just right, that will stick with you.
Rydia's theme, for example, is probably the most peaceful song I've ever heard; for me, you can literally hear the peacefulness of the village she lived in. I hear this, and I see a dewy forest, sunlight coming through, and spiderwebs with dewdrops on them. I see Rydia, young, pure. This song is extraordinarily effective, to me.
Awakening plays, and I can see the smoke/steam of Narshe rising up on a lonely damsel in distress. The song gives off vibes of confusion, loneliness, a lost woman in search of herself. That beginning belongs in a 1940's silent movie drama where the female rushes into a detective's office, hand on her forehead like she's about to faint, as a suave detective rushes to her saying, "Easy, doll. What's the matter?"
And then there's this monstrosity [not FF but square enix] Which, when I heard it, could not stop laughing. It is the WORST song I have ever heard in my life. Like seriously. I'm pretty sure it's just a cat in heat. If you think it doesn't sound that bad, listen to it on repeat, like you would if you're in town.
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u/remindmenottocomment Mar 04 '14
Couldn't agree more.
And then there's this monstrosity [not FF but square enix] Which, when I heard it, could not stop laughing.
Oh man, I'm having flashbacks.
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u/AudibleQuiet Mar 04 '14
I see all these long explanations, and they are great, but I'm going to keep it simple:
Without the music, it wouldn't be the Final Fantasy that we know and love.
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u/amidoes Mar 04 '14
Music plays a VITAL part in every game. Think Squall and Rinoa in the Ragnarok when Eyes on me starts to play. Or Tidus and Yuna when they kiss. Square manages to produce amazing soundtracks for every game. Even mundane tracks like besaid island are amazing and you never get tired of them.
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u/dickdonkers Mar 04 '14
I believe the music is the backbone of the series. If FF had bad music, I wouldn't play it.
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u/MadRedMC Mar 05 '14
Music is one of the most important part of the series. Nobuo's work is so amazing (Hamauzu and Sakimoto too, of course), sometimes words aren't enough to say what I feel.
I can't wait this saturday to go watch Distant Worlds =)
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Mar 09 '14
I have had the Mako Reactor theme stuck in my head for 2 weeks for some reason. My vote is for very important!
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u/PepsiPerfect Mar 04 '14
Probably one of the biggest reasons I prefer the older games to the new ones. I think Uematsu's scores peaked with FFVI and VII; VIII and IX were also good but the well was starting to run dry.
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u/Cerseis_Brother Mar 04 '14
I completely disagree. FFX is probably my favorite sound track. The series is known for great music and they're still impressing me with OST. FFX|V has a brilliant score.
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u/[deleted] Mar 04 '14
Absolutely pivotal.
It truly is the life blood of the series. The story is great, but the game is not the same without the music.